The Power (47 page)

“Don’t be stubborn about this. I know what I’m doing, Jack.” she growled in sheer frustration, but Jack didn’t budge in his resolve to stay there by her side. “I lied to you!” She reminded him, thinking that perhaps she had found a way to piss him off just enough to get him to walk away from her. No, to run away! “You thought I was human at the very least. What I am is a cold-blooded killer. I killed them, Jack. I killed those men. I drank their blood.” the words were incredibly difficult for her to say, but she knew that she had to do it. She had to make Jack believe her a monster. She had to make him mad enough, to hate her enough to leave her there. His jaw tightened at her words, and there was indeed hatred shining in his beautiful eyes.

“You’re saying this to make me leave! Like before, with Jackson on the ship.” He count
ered in a clipped, furious tone.

“I’m trying to save your life, you fool!” she hissed fervently, but Jack would not back down.

“And I am here to save yours!” He returned through clenched teeth.

“My existence is not worth saving.” she met his dark eyes to say, and he just stared at her, stared at her as if seeing her for the very first time. She could read the confl
ict in him. Could feel the love-hate dilemma that argued back and forth within him. “Hate me, Jack. Hate me for all that I did not say, for all that I concealed, for all that I have done.” she encouraged, and still he would not look away from her as the war raged inside of him.

“As interesting as t
his all is,” Ewan’s hated voice suddenly filled the air. “Neither one of you are leaving here tonight.” The threat was evident. Lillian ripped her gaze away from Jack’s, and turned to face the demon before her. Martin and Gerald had crept closer during her and Jack’s debate, she realized, and she became angered with herself for not paying closer attention.

Jac
k’s gun arm came up in warning, but he did not see the missile slung at him from across the room. Lillian caught the movement out of the corner of her eye, and she dove to block Jack from the flying tire rim. It caught her in the back and sent both she and Jack sprawling to the floor. The pain ripped up her spine, and she cried out.

“Lilly!” Jack called urgently as his hand swept up and down her injured back in search of injuries. But there was no time. She felt her body being lifted away from his, and in the moment, the pain ripping through her was still too intense for her to fight them. Feeling her body being propelled backward, she went flying across the room to collide with a stack of rubber tires. Round, black tires fell from the pile, and bounced and rolled away from her as the scent of rubber filled her nose.

“Jack.” she exhaled his name in desperation, and she forced her feet beneath her until she was standing on shaky legs, and then she hurried forward.

“Ah.
Stay back, Lillian.” Ewan warned, as he tossed Jack’s now useless gun away from them. Lillian watched the metal handle disappear beneath a stack of tires before her gaze returned to Ewan, and then to Jack, who was now being held back by Martin and Gerald. They held him tight, despite his struggles. Jack was strong, but his mortal strength did not compare to their superior, immortal strengths, Lillian thought as she watched him fight and struggle to no avail. His arms were locked behind his back, held easily there. His muscles tightened and bulged as he continued to struggle with all of his strength. He wasn’t the sort of man to give up, she realized. He would fight until his dying breath, and he would not leave her!

“What do you want?” Lillian found herself asking of Ewan. Ewan grinned greedily.

“Lilly! No!” Jack shouted, but she ignored his pleas, and she met the haunting green eyes of the ghost from her past. She had vowed to kill him, to make him suffer for what he had done to Jackson, to her, but with Jack here, like this, she knew that Ewan was holding all the cards.

“What do you have to offer?” Ewan feigned interest. He thought he had won, she read of his thoughts. He was just playing with her now, amusing her.

“Let him go. Let him walk out of here. I’ll go with you, I’ll go with you wherever you want, do with you whatever you want.” she tried anyway. The lust-filled smile that spread across his handsome face sickened her as she listened to his mind go over all of the lustful possibilities.

“I will never walk out of here!” Jack shouted in a rage.

“I will not lose you again!” Lillian sent the loud cry to Jack’s mind. “If you ever loved me, Jack. If you ever felt even an ounce of anything remotely close to love then do me this one service if they give you the chance. Walk out of here and don’t look back.” She dared not keep her gaze on Jack for long in fear of Ewan discovering that she could in fact communicate in such a way now. Closing her eyes, picturing Jack in her mind’s eye, she tuned his thoughts out of her mind. It would do her no good now to listen. She had one objective, one obstacle. No, make that three, she glanced at the two other vampires in the room. She could read of them what they longed to do to her, and to say the least it wasn’t pretty. They hated her, hated her because she had plagued their master for so long, like a thorn in his side. They wanted her gone, gone forever!

“Do we have a deal?” she stepped closer to Ewan, so close that he could grab her if he wanted to, and grab her he did. He grabbed her to him in a brutal hold, ripped her head back to near the breaking point, and slammed his mouth down on hers. The kiss was not passionate, it was brutal, punishing
like before. His lips bruised her own. His teeth bit into her bottom lip, but did not draw blood. It was all she could do to stand there, and allow the assault to continue, but she knew that if she showed an ounce of disrespect, or allowed the disgust that she truly felt to show upon her face then Jack would stand no chance of survival. So she endured the punishing kiss until Ewan pulled back in satisfaction. His green gaze had gone white in his greed and lust.

“How can you come to me fully if this man, the one that you are so willing to die for, is still around?” he asked, tilting his dark head to a side as he stared at her. “You love him. You rebuked your own kind, and allowed this, this mere mortal, this disgusting human being to ravish your body, to possess your cold heart! No, Lillian. I don’t believe I can forgive such betrayal.” Ewan swore violently.

Lillian heard Jack’s shout of warning too late. She felt something slam into her lower back and fell to her knees in excruciating pain. Faintly, she heard Jack’s shouted threats of murder if they dared to touch her again, and then the others’ cruel laughter as they did just that. The kicks, the hits came like lightening, hitting her from every angle, bruising her, cracking bones, causing blood to spurt from her mouth and body, and then she fell forward, face down with a mouthful of blood.

“Jack.” she whimpered through the pain. She could still hear him shouting, shouting that he would kill them each slowly, shoutin
g her name to get her attention as she tried desperately to find the strength to stand. Crawling to her knees, she saw a pair of booted feet coming toward her. She lifted her gaze just in time to see a swinging bat coming at her face, and she reacted instantly. Her right hand shot upward, catching the bat in mid strike, and her left fist went slamming into the crotch of the vampire who stood before her, bringing him down to her level. She wasted no time in climbing over him while he withered in agony. She grabbed him by the throat, and she squeezed until she felt the bones of his neck start to give. Martin racked with pain beneath her grasp. His piercing blue eyes turned white, mirroring the evil that lurked deep inside of him. She was injured. Every inch of her body hurt and throbbed, but she could not stop now! Jack needed her, and she would not fail him again.

“Lilly!” Jack shouted in warning, and she turned sharply, dodging out of the way just in time as Ewan reached for her. Standing, she turned fully to face the advancing vampire. She could see Jack struggling against the one who held him to no avail. It was up to her to save them! She knew that. This was their last chance!

“You were always the self-righteous little bitch.” Ewan growled. “The way you looked at me after you found me with that stupid little boy, as if I were some sort of - “

“Monster?” Lillian filled in as she swiped the blood from her lips. “I call them like I see them, you cowardly pig!”

At her hated words, Ewan rushed her. She pivoted and kicked out with her booted foot, catching him mid-chest, and sending him sprawling on his backside across the room. “Get up!” she shouted with all of the fury from the memories of what he had done to her in her past, of what he was even then trying to do to her again. She motioned for him to rise, and Ewan did so, dusting himself off.

“Not bad.” he commented dryly, “But I’ve got better.” he came toward her again, reaching for her with claw like hands. Lillian leaned back away from those hands. She lifted her knee to catch him in the gut, but he grabbed her leg and swept it aside as if it
was nothing and, then he slammed her into the wall behind her. Moving into her, he pressed his body firmly to hers, so close that she could feel every inch of every muscle, and then he thrust against her, and she could feel the proof of his sickening desire.

Whipping back her head, she sent it forward with such force into his skull that he stumb
led backward in disorientation. She came at him, striking out and catching his jaw with the back of her hand and sending him flying sideways away from her. Filled with fury and rage, she did not see the gesture he made to his man, as she came for him.

“And now it is your turn to feel some pain, you coward.” she hissed, but his sudden smile gave her pause,
and she knew suddenly what was happening. Whipping around, she tried to run to help Jack before it was too late, but strong arms locked around her from behind. Ewan held her tight against him as she thrashed, kicked, and hit to escape him as Jack’s pain-filled screams filled the air. She watched in horror as they ripped at his body with their claws, their fangs. Blood oozed from fresh, emerging wounds, and all she could do was cry out as Ewan’s arms locked tighter and tighter around her body.

“Jack!” she screamed out his name, feeling his pain as if it were a part of
her. When his head lulled forward, she fell to her knees, dragging Ewan with her. Martin and Gerald moved back, allowing Jack’s lifeless body to slide to the cement floor. She watched in agony as he fell face first to the hard ground, and did not move. Pain like she had never known tore from somewhere deep inside of her and ripped from her mouth in a resounding yell of denial. She was too late! Once again, she was too late! “Jack.” She whimpered. “Oh Jack!” she cried out, only to be rewarded by cruel laughter. She didn’t feel when Ewan let her go. She didn’t move for several seconds, and then realizing that she was free she crawled to Jack’s body, and stared down at him in numbing agony. He wasn’t moving. She couldn’t hear his heart beating.

Shakily, her hand reached out to touch him, but then she heard it, the cruel, heartless laughter coming from just before her.
Looking up, she saw the vampire Martin hovering a few feet above the ground, watching her with white, amused eyes. They had done this! They had killed Jack! Now, they would pay, she shouted inside her mind! Rising, she ran for the vampire that still hovered above the floor, and did not stop. Jumping out, her arms and legs spanned wide and locked around his long, hard body. Tearing his thick neck back to the breaking point, she felt it snap in her hands, and then her fangs sank into the giving flesh there and drained him. The power that seeped into her with his blood was a surprise that she did not fully recognize until she dropped the vampire’s crumpled body to the ground, and realized that she was standing, no floating ten feet above the hard cement floor below. Her gaze swept the room, falling once again to Jack’s lifeless body. A tear slipped from her vampire eye, and fell to the floor. She wasn’t sure how she did it, but her feet regained the floor, and she looked up just in time to see the vampire Gerald flying at her in a rage. She had killed his friend, she read of him. She had killed Martin!

“
And now I will kill you as well!” She sent the shout to his mind as his body caught hers and sent her slamming backward until her back crashed into the hard, unyielding wall. His claws dug at the flesh of her arms, her neck, and she could feel the power leaving her as easily as it had come to be replaced by the weakness that could only be caused by the lack of blood. This was it, she thought. This was where she found her demise at last. It was almost a comforting thought. She could not go another hundred and fifty years without Jack. She wouldn’t!

In thinking so, she dropped her arms to her sides in surrender as the vampire continued to painfully rip her to shreds. She heard Ewan’s shouted order for Gerald to stop, but Gerald was beyond reasoning, and so was she for that matter. She wanted it to be over! More than anything she wanted to never feel anything again.

“Jack.” she whimpered his name one last time, and she closed her eyes to the hated world around her, but then suddenly Gerald was being torn from her body. Her eyes shot open just in time to witness Ewan lifting the vampire’s body into the air, turning it over and sending it slamming down onto a tire rotator. The metal bar at the center erupted through the vampire’s chest in a bloody, meaty mess. Lillian slumped forward, watching in satisfaction as the vampire fought to free himself, as he stared with white eyes of shock and disbelief up at Ewan who had done this to him, to his friend!

Lillian stumbled forward as Ewan’s white, accusing eyes shot to her. His muscles were tensed, and he was furious, furious that both of his would-be friends had been killed, one by his own hands.